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Middle East demand for British security
products is only growing stronger, says BSIA
»»Despite increased competition
from other countries, BSIA member
companies are bullish about the market
for security products in the Middle East
this year.
That’s according to a survey of
members of the British Security Industry
Association’s Export Council who
attended Intersec 2015 in Dubai. Some
75% of survey respondents said that the
number of people visiting their stands had
grown year on year and that the quality of
attendees had been steadily improving.
Analysis of the research shows the
leading technologies to be integrated
solutions, HD CCTV, cloud storage and
video surveillance as a service (VSAAS).
Meanwhile biometrics for access control
and video content analysis did not feature
in the rankings this year – a surprising
result given that they have both scored
highly in previous years.
Tom Sharrard, Vice Chair of the Export
Council said Intersec was reaching deeper
into the Middle East market than before.
“The UAE states were the first accessible
countries in the Gulf States and what we
saw before, in the early days of exhibiting
there, was a flurry of business in the UAE
but now we’re seeing a spread of visitors
from around the Gulf region and around
the globe,” he said.
Compliance with industry standards
and technological innovation led the list
of factors influencing customer buying
decisions in the region. Further down
the list but still important were ease of
use, return on investment and purchase
price.
“People at Intersec want better quality
products and they come to the UK Pavilion
because other areas won’t necessarily give
them that quality,” he said.
The vertical market sector showing
the most activity was critical national
infrastructure which includes the
vitally important oil and gas industry in
the Middle East. This was followed by
Tom Sharrard
government, which includes public sector
buildings and transportation, and then
retail.
“Especially with the number of really big
projects happening, quality is much more
important than price, and Britain has a
reputation for compliance with industry
standards. Off the back of that, the BSIA
and UKTI have really raised awareness of
British products in the region,” Sharrard
said.
An interesting feature of the Middle
East is that there are fewer contracts
overall to bid on but those that do come
up are generally much larger on average
than in Europe – four to five times larger.
“They also tend to renegotiate later than
in other areas,” he said. “Understanding
the culture of negotiations is critical in the
Middle East.”
The survey reinforces the findings of
an earlier BSIA survey, its State of the
Nation Survey, which showed that the
leading export markets were, in order
of importance, the Middle East, Eastern
Europe and Western Europe.
“What we tend to find in the Middle
East is that ease of use and return on
investment are at the top of the list of
priorities whereas purchase price is
towards the bottom of the list. That
compares to the Eastern Europe market
where price is more of an issue and things
tend to be sold on price, not standards.
Lifetime cost of ownership is overlooked –
they understand the benefits but in most
cases can’t afford the higher initial outlay,”
he said.
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Looking further East to the
Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), made up of countries that used
to be part of the USSR, the story in the
past year has been quite negative. “For
the past five or six years Russia has been
a very important market for us but over
the past 12 months, it’s dropped heavily,”
Sharrard said. “In our State of the Nation
survey, it went from second on the list
to second from last in a year,” he said. “I
hope a lot of the projects that we were
working on have just been put on hold –
not lost for good.”
In North America, there are
opportunities for British security
companies, with 30% of survey
respondents saying it was an important
market to them.
‘We’ve not found the
American market
to be parochial’
“We’ve not found the American market
to be parochial,” said Sharrard, who
is also a Regional Sales Manager for
Integrated Design Ltd, manufacturer of
the Fastlane range of entrance control
systems. “Although the US market
continues to grow for us its share of
global business has reduced a lot because
of significant growth in other regions of
the world.”
Looking ahead, Sharrard said that
the biggest barriers for members
of the BSIA seeking to export their
products will continue to be price and
local certification costs. Surprisingly,
certification costs are still sometimes a
problem in Europe where, despite the
goal of harmonisation of regulation
across national borders, local regulators
and buyers can still cling to old-fashioned
requirements.
“These are effectively barriers to trade,”
he said.